London attack“Enough is enough”: Theresa May
Prime Minister Theresa May has warned that there has been “far too much tolerance of extremism” in the United Kingdom, and vowed to step up the fight against Islamist terrorism after the London Bridge attack. “Enough is enough,” she said. May said the recent wave of attacks showed the United Kingdom was “experiencing a new trend in the threat we face.” She continued: “As terrorism breeds terrorism and perpetrators are inspired to attack, not only on the basis of carefully constructed plots after years of planning and training, and not even as lone attackers radicalized online, but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack.”
Prime Minister Theresa May has warned that there has been “far too much tolerance of extremism” in the United Kingdom, and vowed to step up the fight against Islamist terrorism after the London Bridge attack.
“Enough is enough,” she said.
Speaking outside 10 Downing Street following a meeting of the government security committee, May said internet companies must not allow extremism a place to exist, but added that there was also a need to tackle “safe spaces in the real world,” which would require “difficult” conversations.
The prime minister also said she would support increased prison terms for terrorism offenses, even relatively minor ones.
Recent attacks in London and Manchester were linked by Islamist extremism, May said.
“It is an ideology that is a perversion of Islam and a perversion of the truth,” she said. “Defeating this ideology is one of the great challenges of our time. But it cannot be defeated through military intervention alone.”
She continued: “It is time to say enough is enough. Everybody needs to go about their lives as they normally would. Our society should continue to function in accordance with our values. But when it comes to taking on extremism and terrorism, things need to change.”
May said the recent wave of attacks showed the United Kingdom was “experiencing a new trend in the threat we face.”
She continued: “As terrorism breeds terrorism and perpetrators are inspired to attack, not only on the basis of carefully constructed plots after years of planning and training, and not even as lone attackers radicalized online, but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack.”
Action was needed in the United Kingdom as well as overseas, she added. “While we have made significant progress in recent years, there is – to be frank – far too much tolerance of extremism in our country.
“So we need to become far more robust in identifying it and stamping it out across the public sector and across society. That will require some difficult, and often embarrassing, conversations.
“But the whole of our country needs to come together to take on this extremism, and we need to live our lives not in a series of separated, segregated communities but as one truly United Kingdom.”
